“Connected lighting” refers to a system of luminaires which are controlled not by (or not only by) a traditional wired, electrical on-off or dimmer circuit, but rather via a wired or more often wireless network using a digital communication protocol. Typically, each of a plurality of luminaires, or even individual lamps within a luminaire, may each be equipped with a wireless receiver or transceiver for receiving lighting control commands from a lighting control device or devices according to a wireless networking protocol such as ZigBee, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth (and optionally also for sending status reports to the lighting control device using the wireless networking protocol).
Luminaires may have individually controllable parameters, such as brightness and colour, and one or more luminaires may be controlled together in a group in a coordinated manner to create an overall light distribution, or scene, for illuminating an area or space such as room in a desired manner. Combinations of different luminaires and/or different settings of the luminaires can achieve a different overall illumination of the area of space, as desired.
Rather than having to control individual luminaires, or even individual settings for the or each luminaire, in order to achieve a desired illumination, it is usually preferable for groups of settings to be stored together corresponding to a desired light distribution, or scene. For example a “morning” scene, or a “relaxing” scene can be created, and it will be understood that a large number of lighting options quickly become available.
In order to improve manageability and convenience for end users, automation or semi-automation is increasingly employed to control illumination in a lighting system such as a connected lighting system as described above. Routines and schedules can be learned and programmed, and sensors and other inputs contribute to predict and adapt illumination to a user's wants and needs.